shane;13983 said:
So it sounds like you are telling me I should dose as I dose in my 20 gallon. NPK plus Traces.
Do you know what the ADA Brighty Step Series has in it anbd the differences between the steps? Does the Step Series have traces plus NP without any iron?
That is one thing I never liked about Dupla's ferts. Don't know what your putting in the tank. There was no ingredient list. Some sort of thing with ADA.
Thank you!
We complained about Dupla about 15 years ago, then about 12 years ago, PMDD came about based on a simple concept: provide what the plants need for growth using base chemicals like KNO3, baking soda for KH etc.
Now you understanding the marketing vs the science.
There is a reason they(Dupla and ADA) both do this.
It's due to making money off the products. Be realistic, they are businesses trying to make $$. They are not going to tell you to buy KNO3 at 50 cents lb vs their special nice bottle of liquid that cost 0.0001 cents and have nice pretty packing, maybe some poetry, easy to follow instructions etc.
Some like to argue with me about it, like I do not know what is in it and that I might be wrong. That they really think that there is so much that we do not yet know and that ADA or Dupla are holding some secret info etc that only they know and that they have a huge jump on the agriculture scientific community which has billions$ of research, spent the last several hundred years learning how and why plants grow.
Perhaps, but I doubt it.
Dupla sure did not, but back 20 years ago, Dupla loyalist made such claims and where very insistent. Today we know better.
We can make that argument about
everything if you really want to push that issue about doubt.
But what does they really resolve?
Suggesting an alternative or a solution to the issue rather than just doubt is really what they should be doing and then actually testing it!
They have the passion to piss a moan, I'd love to see such passion displayed towards development of test and actually doing some work and detailing it out.
I think only a very few folks really ever do that and they are not hacks either.
Funny how that works?
I wish to run an more detailed analysis before telling folks what are in each product line. I have clients that I do use them for their tanks, but they are smaller tanks, the larger ones, all get EI.
I have a dozen things on my plate to test. Takes time and the reagents to measure them and verify them against a standard. I'll get to it in the next few months if I am lucky.
I honestly do not care that much either.
The interest lay in the hobbyist or for myself to quelch the folks that are blind loyalist. But I'm not going to rush out just prove their sorry selves wrong anytime soon.......
I already know what drives plant growth at a molecular level, at a cellular level, at a organ level, at the whole plant level, how a plant develops, grows from a seed till senesense.
I am at one the top agricultural states/research centers in the USA which produces more rice than all of Japan(yes, CA produces a good deal more rice than all of Japan), I do research on aquatic plants with the top folks in CA. They are my advisors. I bring up ideas in the hobby to them, 2 of them I'm testing for weed control for the research.
New stuff comes out all the time.
I see it and go to lectures on it 3x a week
But mineral nutrition is a fairly straight forward process.
Plants grow for defined reasons. They do not grow based on magic or some swank talking talking crap about pure forms of K+ that are from pure deep ocean sources.
K+ is K+.
Plants grow for these 3 main reasons and sticking with these will make your life a lot simpler: CO2, light and nutrients.
Not Penac, toumaline and other water purifying mumbo.
KNO3 from Greg Watson vs K and NO3 from other sources does not matter.
Many that have been in this hobby a long time realize this, they tell folks this, but then some clown with 2 years experience who likes to use semantics and use doubt for everything, but has little background in plant biology, has trouble with their own tanks and enjoys arguing, decides to tell folks that they found "the cure".
No, they finally just learned how to grow plants.
Karen Randall does not post much anymore nor do many of the folks that started sharing their knowledge on line for such reasons.
It's hopeless to try and argue with folks that are ignorant, base their views on belief, would rather argue and place doubt on anything rather than resolve or come to some sort of learned understanding. I also think Amano realized that a long time ago as well and decided not to bother with it(it's a lot of work to learn what I have thus far) and focus on scaping/deflecting such questions and sell ADA.
You'll note I suggest methods that test or see if such things might be true or not, not all work, but many do.
But we do not see such offerings from the hacks or companies.
Having a little knowledge is much more dangerous.
You may have heard that expression.
It's very applicable in this hobby.
My solution is to have folks really focus on the basics(light/CO2/nutrients and the maintenance), have them really understand those concepts first. Then branch out from there.
So back to your comment: yes, knowing what you add and how it affects the plant is important. Many do not care and want everything provided for them, so ADA, Dupla etc will have a market there and there is nothing wrong with that either.
Except you really do not learn as much.
Ironically, they often like to say there is so much we do not know yet and learning about new methods to grow plants is what they seek.
Learning?
Sure they do
Give me a few 1000$ and I'll make your tank grow well also.
Regards,
Tom Barr